In his column on Brown University and the Common Application ("Tragedy of the Common App," September 25), Dan Davidson '11 downplays the benefits the Common Application provides for first-generation and low- and moderate-income students, as well as some of the ways in which the University is already, "[focusing] its resources on the...pressing problems that income disparity in college admissions creates."
While I have no official opinion on the decision of the Office of Admission to use the Common Application for undergraduate admissions, the Common App makes a selective institution more accessible by bridging college knowledge gaps and indirectly saving time and money while enabling application to college.
The first benefit is increased accessibility. The Common Application is already well-known and understood. Guidance counselors at schools unaccustomed to sending their students to elite institutions may have no familiarity with any particular, distinctive "uncommon" application, but have guided scores of students through the Common Application. The "marginal benefit of uniformity," as Davidson puts it, is actually quite substantial.
Schools that traditionally funnel students to elite colleges and universities will have numerous resources available. Students at these schools know to request applications early and (with guidance) are able to meet all deadlines. Students who attend schools less accustomed to sending graduates to elite colleges (or to college in general) encounter more challenges.
With the Common Application, an effective one-stop-online-shop, a student can still submit eight different and distinctive essays to eight different schools if she or he wants to. But a student can also decide to apply to a selective school electronically that she or he may have only learned about recently, having already done the bulk of the application.
By welcoming the Common Application, Brown opens itself to these (often highly qualified) students and implicitly commits itself to such openness. With an information or "college knowledge" gap, accessibility matters.
For students who will be the first in their families to attend college, this school-based familiarity and support is critical: No matter how supportive a parent is, there is no replacement for informed guidance on college applications. Any college's adoption of the Common Application makes the logistical consideration of that school that much easier.
For low-income students uncertain about their academic competitiveness - the ones schools lose before they even (or don't) apply - the Common Application reduces one barrier to application: intimidation. With only one supplemental essay to write, Brown's application becomes no different from the applications for numerous other colleges and universities, selective and non-selective alike.
Students also benefit from saving time and money. Low- and moderate-income, first-generation college-bound students have substantial demands on their time, often working to help support future college expenses and their family's budget. Each additional application gets in the way of family obligations, work commitments, extra-curricular activities and school itself.
Many college applicants from middle and high income families benefit from privileges not limited to SAT preparatory courses, private education and the national policy of financing public school districts by local property taxation. The Common Application does not address any of these issues, but it still makes applying easier for students and their families, and thus more likely to actually happen.
On the subject of what Brown is doing, I would like to mention the National College Advising Corps (NCAC) and its work in Rhode Island.
In Rhode Island, 15.1 percent of children (35,456), just under the national average, live in poverty, as determined by Rhode Island Kids Count in 2008. In the cities of Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick and Woonsocket, the child poverty rate ranges between a low of 26.8 percent (West Warwick) and highs of 42.5 percent and 42.7 percent (Providence and Central Falls), all well above the national and state averages.(1)
The Advising Corps is addressing the issues of income disparity and education equity with respect to college access nationally. The Rhode Island Corps is based at the Swearer Center for Public Service, which provides full-time College Guides and part-time Access Scholars with extensive training, resources and support throughout the year.
Twelve recent college graduates serve as College Guides in Rhode Island's urban public high schools, assisted by ten Access Scholars (current undergraduates). The Advising Corps works with guidance counselors, administrators, teachers and families to expand pathways to higher education for more low- to moderate-income, first-generation college-bound high school youth and to cultivate college-going cultures in each of the partner schools and communities.
With a clear mission to make post-secondary education available to more high school youth, the College Advising Corps works with students as they file FAFSA forms, write college essays and fill out applications, both common and uncommon.
The Common Application alone will not end the effects of income disparity on college attendance, persistence and success. College is a beginning - not an end -and any qualified applicant should be able to tell the admissions committee why in 500 words. Brown students will continue to be anything but uniform regardless of the application. In consideration of students with limited time and monetary resources, why make it harder to apply?
Justin Cohen '07 is the program assistant for NCAC and a former College Guide. He encourages you to spread college knowledge.
